My Thoughts and observations on my ADHD and emergencies (written after missing Hamster crisis 2026)
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It’s interesting how often you hear that people with ADHD are great in an emergency. I knew it was true from the few times it has happened to me, but I never really thought about why.
Right before my lunch break today, we realized Bear the Hamster had escaped sometime during the night. Hannah loves her hamster, so finding him as soon as possible, if he was still inside the house, was essential. Spoiler alert, I found him at the bottom of her trash can chilling, doing fine.
During this missing-hamster “emergency,” it occurred to me that the reason someone with ADHD can do so well in an emergency is that suddenly there is one large, clearly defined task that is more important than anything else.
The ADHD brain can hyper-focus on that single thought or task and direct all its available brain power toward it. Outside of an emergency, that brain power is often split across multiple “browser tabs” that are constantly open and competing for attention.
This may also explain why something as simple as a cup left out in the wrong place can get mentally logged as, “I need to grab that after I finish the current thing I’m doing,” only to be forgotten as other competing tasks come along.
For example, I might notice a cup on the floor on my way to fold laundry. It seems like an easy task to come back to. But while folding laundry, I notice the trash can is full, so the task morphs into “empty the trash cans.” While doing that, I notice the dishwasher has finished running, and now I should unload it.
Meanwhile, the cup, which started as a quick mental note to deal with later, gets pushed further and further down the priority list.
It’s the tiny things that cause my brain to assume I won’t forget them. I’ll get to it after I finish what I’m doing. It’ll only take a second.
But that backfires almost every time.
Why does that happen? It’s tough to say for sure, because you would think picking up the cup is such an easy task that I’d just knock it out first.
But any deviation from the brain’s main task of focus, laundry folding in this example, can cause a freeze. The sheer number of competing mental browser tabs can make me completely forget what I was doing while still somehow knowing that I am forgetting something.
That leads to the mental browser-tab shuffle until another task or thought takes priority enough to become my new focus.
Occasionally, I might luck out and the “cup” gets mentally selected as the next task. This is fairly unlikely.
More often, it remains on the floor, out of its proper place, to annoy Juliet, sometimes for days on end.
I do take medication daily for ADHD, so I have to wonder whether I’m more likely to avoid these slip-ups during the time my medication is most active.
You would think that would be the case. But rather than closing every mental browser tab, it seems to give me a stronger desire to work on or think through the tabs that normally require the most effort.
Mowing the lawn while my medication is active becomes a fun chore rather than something to put off until later.
My lunch break becomes, “How many things can I get done in this hour?” instead of relaxing, or even remembering to eat.
It’s intense focus, but it’s easily misdirected.
Things like to-do lists and planning ahead for specific things I need to do can help to some degree.But deep down, I prefer to think I can just improvise my way through life without having a game plan for every free moment.
But that means even with medication keeping me focused and motivated, there’s no telling what task or thought will get priority that day.
UNLESS it’s an emergency.
Emergencies, it turns out, have the ability, whether medicated or not, to jolt my ADHD brain into hyper-focus almost instantly.
And that hyper-focus, combined with the calm under pressure that seems to come with it, may be the formula for handling an emergency so well compared with the simple daily tasks that somehow feel much harder.
I guess, in that sense, it is a kind of superpower.
With great power comes great responsibility, so I probably do need to think more proactively instead of improvising my way through daily life to hone my superpower.
Otherwise, the cup on the floor will linger indefinitely.
“I meant to pick that up” no longer works as an excuse after the first day.
Or, for that matter, after 19 years of marriage
